"When all else fails, I always say, paint a flower." Known for his watercolors and colorful abstract acrylics, Bud has always loved art, artists, and their contributions to culture but has only been working at it since 2004. At the age of fifty-three, Cassiday turned to art. "I’d always wanted to be an artist –so after ending a long time career as a union organizer, I started painting day after day and night after night. Twelve hundred plus paintings later, I’m still discovering creativity in myself that I thought I had, but needed to dig down to, reveal, and express."
On the American scene, I am constantly amazed and influenced by well known artists including Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, Robert Henri, Hans Hofmann, Edward Hopper, Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keefe, Charles Burchfield, Grant Wood, Stuart Davis, Mark Rothko, Willem De Koonig, Arshile Gorky, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Grace Hartigan, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, David Hockney, and many currently working artists not so well known. On the European side, I am influenced by the modern greats: Matisse, Picasso, Macke, Kandinsky, Cezanne, Roualt, Van Gogh, the Fauvists, the Impressionists, the Expressionists, and many others. Out of this melting pot of American and European art comes a rich mix of line and color and shape and form which enriches our lives every day.
Bud says, "As one who lives my life in that bittersweet place between memory and hope, I continue to explore the desire for meaning we humans experience—that searching for patterns that we can recognize, that comfort zone of the familiar. I find that many of my pieces exist in that world between the recognizable, safe, and comfortable --- and illusory, discordant mysteries of structure and form. Some of my works lean toward the world of comfortable pattern, some include a light hearted whimsy of creation, and others capture the frustrating lack of clarity and meaning we too often witness or experience."
Bud says, "Sometimes after a long day or week of working on abstract compositions contemplating the meaning of life, the relativity of perception, the inadequacies of language, and the devaluing of knowledge, I need to paint a flower or a sailboat on the ocean, a chicken or a landscape, or go play a round of golf."
"I often have fun with the titles of my art, as well," Bud says. "My Simple Gifts series is an example of this. One of my favorite melodies is that American folk tune Aaron Copland used for his orchestral version. Such a simple melodic line contrasts sharply with many of the complex unrecognizable abstractions in that series. Another of my favorites is ‘Hot Dog Vendor’; and try as I might I can’t find the hot dog or the vendor!"
Bud has exhibited his work at several fine art galleries in Omaha and Eastern Nebraska including Adam Whitney Gallery, the aVENue Gallery formerly in Dundee, The White Crane in the Old Market Passageway, the new Dundee Gallery, and the Louisville Art Gallery. In January and February 2007, Bud was a guest artist at The Omaha Community Playhouse and The Shelterbelt Theater exhibiting his works. In order to pay some of the bills, Bud teaches writing part time at Metropolitan Community College, plays his saxophone in an oldies Rock and Roll Band, paints houses, and sells a painting now and then. The Backwaters Press features one of Bud’s paintings on the cover of a Jeanne Emmons’ volume of poetry. Bud was an honorary judge for the YWCA’s Children’s Art Against Violence contest in 2207. Bud’s art can always be seen at his website at www.artbycassiday.com.
"I like to say my work has been exhibited at Joslyn Art Museum, and it was, but really it was just a one night only fundraising dinner in the Atrium! Nevertheless…."
